In a message dated 6/3/2009 9:31:57 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
baynesrb at yahoo.com writes:
'The cause of e caused e' is contingent. On the other hand if we think of
the sentence as completely devoid of pragmatic elements, and here I have in
mind Jerry Katz's notion of 'linguistic meaning' then the sentence is
trivial, like 'I married my wife'.
--- I loved that, since the trivium has always been an interest of mine.
---- I would even provide a _more_ trivial utterance:
"My mother bore me"
--
Again, one should recall that the word Davidson uses for
The cause of e caused e
is "analytic" -- in "Actions, Reasons and Causes":
The essential Davidson - Google Books Result by Donald Davidson, Ernie
Lepore, Kirk Ludwig - 2006 - Philosophy - 282 pages
Then the cause of B = A;
so substituting, we have
'The cause of B caused B ', which is analytic.
The truth of a causal statement depends on what events are ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=0199288852... -
repr. in A&E collection.
----
I'm not sure "My mother bore me" is analytic. With all the sci-fi around
I'm suspecting it's not. "_Some_ mother bore me" may be analytic in that one
may define 'mother' as 'anything that gave birth to me'.
"I married my wife" is a good one for analysis. I find it's indeed otiose
unless you specify the place or year.
And it becomes interesting for Quine if the utterer is an self-confessed
'unmarried' bachelor, I assume.
Locke called 'trivialities' -- and R. B. Jones may testify this, since he
has the whole Essay 1690 online -- 'trifles', or 'trifling propositions'.
The term should have seduced Hume. But again, I'm not sure Davidson is
meaning 'triviality' in the sense his gerrymandered Hume would!
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza
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